125-601: EuroMillions is a transnational lottery that requires seven correct numbers to win the jackpot, which consists of 5 main numbers and 2 Lucky Star Numbers. It was launched on 7 February 2004 by France 's Française des Jeux , Spain 's Loterías y Apuestas del Estado and the United Kingdom 's Allwyn . The first draw was held on 13 February 2004 in Paris . Initially, only the UK , France and Spain participated, with
250-631: A drag-along right , An Post and An Post Pension Funds were obliged to sell their minority 21.4 percent stake. This meant that, for the first time, the Irish state retained no ownership stake in the company running the National Lottery. The acquisition was completed in November 2023. The Irish state continues to own and regulate the National Lottery, which PLI will continue to operate until its 20-year licence expires in November 2034. Following
375-475: A "Dream Number" from 1 to 5. Players who match all winning numbers, including the Dream Number, win the top prize; players who match the first six numbers, but not the Dream Number, win the second-tier prize of €2,000 per month for 5 years. Cash prizes ranging from around €100 to around €2.50 are paid for a Match-5, Match-4, Match-3, or Match-2. EuroDreams tickets first went on sale on 30 October 2023, at
500-546: A "full investigation and audit ... in the interests of public confidence" and called on Premier Lotteries Ireland to revert Lotto to a 6/45 game to make the jackpot more winnable. In response, a PLI spokesperson called the extended sequence of rollovers "unprecedented", noting that since Lotto had become a 6/47 game in September 2015, 80 percent of jackpots had been won within seven weeks. National Lottery regulator Carol Boate and PLI representatives were called to testify before
625-503: A 6/45 game to produce more rollovers and bigger jackpots. This made the odds of winning the jackpot 1 in 8,145,060. The National Lottery also made the starting jackpot a guaranteed €2 million, increased the Match-5+bonus prize from €12,000 to €25,000, introduced a Match-3 prize of €5, and increased the price of a line of Lotto from €1 to €1.50. In 2015, the National Lottery's new operator, Premier Lotteries Ireland, changed Lotto to
750-493: A 6/45 game, the National Lottery raised the Lotto Plus 1 and Lotto Plus 2 jackpots to €350,000 and €250,000 respectively. In September 2015, when Lotto became a 6/47 game, the National Lottery raised the top prize of Lotto Plus 1 to €500,000 and introduced Lotto Plus Raffle, which added a four-digit raffle code to each Lotto Plus ticket; all ticketholders who matched the winning code won a fixed prize of €300. It also introduced
875-514: A 6/47 game and increased the price from €1.50 to €2 per line. The change took effect for drawings beginning 3 September 2015, making the odds of winning the jackpot 1 in 10,737,573. The Match-5+bonus prize was increased from €25,000 to what the operator stated would be an average of over €100,000 and a Match-2+bonus prize was introduced, consisting of a two-line Daily Million quick pick with Plus. The Lotto jackpot rolls over until won, increasing with each rollover. Under rules introduced in 2015, when
1000-711: A EuroMillions jackpot of €115 million, at the time the largest lottery prize ever won in Europe. On 19 February 2019, a family syndicate from North Dublin won a €175 million jackpot, which holds the record for Ireland's largest ever lottery win. The odds of winning the EuroMillions jackpot are 1 in 139,838,160. For each EuroMillions line purchased in Ireland, the buyer receives a nine-character Ireland Only Raffle (IOR) code made up of four letters and five numbers. Ten IOR codes are selected on each EuroMillions draw night, with
1125-421: A Match-2+bonus prize of a two-line Daily Million quick pick in both Lotto Plus 1 and Lotto Plus 2. On 30 August 2018, the cost of Lotto Plus was doubled to €1 per line, the first price increase in 18 years. The Lotto Plus 1 jackpot was doubled to €1 million while the Lotto Plus 2 jackpot remained at €250,000. The fixed prize for Lotto Plus Raffle was increased from €300 to €500, and the National Lottery introduced
1250-506: A Match-4 and €20 for a Match-3. The odds of winning the Plus jackpot are 1 in 2,118,760. In October 2023, the National Lottery launched EuroDreams, a joint venture with the lotteries of seven other European countries—Austria, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland. The National Lottery's first annuity -style game, EuroDreams features a top prize of €20,000 per month for 30 years. Players choose six numbers from 1 to 40 and
1375-453: A cost of €2.50 per line, with the first draw held on 6 November. Draws are held in Paris on Mondays and Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. local time (8:00 p.m. Irish time). An annuity prize may be paid only to an individual, not to a syndicate; if an annuity winner dies before the payment period concludes, the remaining outstanding amount will be paid as a lump sum to his or her estate. The odds of winning
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#17327655302201500-462: A fixed, non-rolling jackpot of £ 250,000. The first Lotto Plus drawing took place on 25 October 2000. In 2002, the National Lottery added a second Lotto Plus drawing, renamed the drawings Lotto Plus 1 and Lotto Plus 2 , and raised the cost of Lotto Plus to €0.50 per line. The jackpots were fixed at €300,000 and €200,000 respectively. The first drawings for Lotto Plus 1 and Lotto Plus 2 took place on 1 September 2002. In November 2006, when Lotto became
1625-612: A fixed, non-rolling jackpot of €500,000. Players can also win fixed prizes of €2,000 for a Match-4 and €20 for a Match-3. The odds of winning the Plus jackpot are 1 in 2,118,760. Since November 2009 at least one UK player every week has won a guaranteed £1,000,000. With the introduction of the Tuesday EuroMillions Draw on Tuesday 10 May 2011 there were 2 Millionaire Raffle winners each week. Changes to Euromillions in September 2016 meant that two guaranteed Millionaire Raffle winners were made per draw, or 4 per week across
1750-556: A former director of corporate services in the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission , whose appointment took effect on 9 October 2017. In 2015, representatives of PLI appeared before the Oireachtas Finance Committee to explain technological faults affecting the running of the National Lottery. One problem had delayed the midweek Lotto draw scheduled for 4 February 2015 until the following day,
1875-620: A full house on or before the 45th number drawn. If not won, the Snowball prize rolls over to the next draw, allowing one additional number each time. Telly Bingo takes place three times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, with the Telly Bingo TV Gameshow broadcast on RTÉ One at 12.45 p.m. The National Lottery offers a wide range of scratchcard games and online instant-win games. These accounted for over €298 million in sales in 2022. The National Lottery has funded
2000-467: A group of 51 society lotteries across the United Kingdom with a common drawing and prize pool. Each drawing is held on behalf of one or more of the society lotteries, whose revenues go to support health-related causes in their respective area. The Health Lottery received criticism on launch for only pledging to donate 20.3% of ticket costs to charity, compared to the National Lottery's 28%, and that
2125-558: A lottery offering tickets for sale is the lottery organized by Roman Emperor Augustus . The funds were for repairs in the City of Rome, and the winners were given prizes in the form of articles of unequal value. The first recorded lotteries to offer tickets for sale with prizes in the form of money were held in the Low Countries in the 15th century. Various towns held public lotteries to raise money for town fortifications, and to help
2250-649: A lottery to raise money to purchase cannons for the defense of Philadelphia. Several of these lotteries offered prizes in the form of " Pieces of Eight ". George Washington 's Mountain Road Lottery in 1768 was unsuccessful, but these rare lottery tickets bearing Washington's signature became collectors' items; one example sold for about $ 15,000 in 2007. Washington was also a manager for Col. Bernard Moore 's "Slave Lottery" in 1769, which advertised land and slaves as prizes in The Virginia Gazette . At
2375-458: A profit for the state. Although the English probably first experimented with raffles and similar games of chance, the first recorded official lottery was chartered by Queen Elizabeth I , in the year 1566, and was drawn in 1569. The 400,000 tickets issued cost 10 shillings (£0.50) each (roughly three weeks of wages for ordinary citizens), with the grand prize worth roughly £5,000. This lottery
2500-407: A range of other games, including televised bingo, Millionaire Raffles, and online instant-win games. Since the National Lottery's inception, tickets and scratchcards have been sold through a countrywide network of retailers. In 2009, the National Lottery introduced online sales for lottery tickets; it also now offers online instant-win games. In 2022, around 84 percent of sales were transacted through
2625-422: A record for the largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history, with its 8 November 2022 draw having an estimated jackpot of US$ 2 billion. National Lottery (Ireland) The National Lottery ( Irish : An Crannchur Náisiúnta ) is the state-licensed lottery of Ireland . Established in 1986 to raise funds for good causes, it began operations on 23 March 1987 when it sold its first scratchcards . It launched
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#17327655302202750-465: A second weekly draw and the number of "lucky stars" in the Pâquerette machine increasing from 9 to 11. A prize for matching two main numbers and no lucky stars was also introduced on the same date. On Saturday, 24 September 2016, the number of "lucky stars" increased again, from 11 to 12. The game is offered by 10 lottery operators in 9 countries: Through the authorities of the above operators,
2875-423: A special £ 100 prize for each Match-4 winner. In response, the National Lottery limited the number of tickets each retailer could sell, and disabled machines the syndicate was using heavily, but the syndicate still managed to purchase over 80 percent of the combinations, spending an estimated £ 820,000 on tickets. It had the winning numbers following the draw, but two other winning tickets were also sold, meaning
3000-456: A special Lotto Plus Million Euro Raffle draw to be held several times a year, under which an additional €1 million would be evenly divided among all winning Lotto Plus Raffle tickets. The odds of winning the Lotto Plus jackpots are the same as the odds of winning the main Lotto jackpot. More than 90 percent of Lotto players also enter Lotto Plus. The minimum cost of playing Lotto with Lotto Plus
3125-682: A super draw or a special event in the UK Millionaire Raffle. Prices per line in the UK increased by 50p to £2.00. The 50p was added due to weak exchange rates between the pound and the euro and to cover the expense of the new Millionaire Maker. On 24 September 2016 the price per line in the UK was increased by an additional 50p to £2.50. In January 2019, the number of guaranteed winners in the UK Millionaire Maker game reverted to one. Lottery A lottery (or lotto )
3250-545: A ten-person syndicate from the Dublin pub Scruffy Murphy’s that, in 1990, won a £2.4 million Lotto jackpot, then the biggest lottery win in Europe. With Wexford businessman Paddy Kehoe, he set up another syndicate to attempt a brute force attack on the Lotto. When the jackpot reached £ 1.7 million for the May 1992 bank holiday drawing, the syndicate attempted to buy up all the combinations and thus win all possible prizes, including
3375-497: A top prize of €500,000. Draws take place at 2 p.m. and 9 p.m. each day, including weekends and bank holidays. The odds of winning the Daily Million and Daily Million Plus jackpots are 1 in 3,262,623. In the summer of 2008, the National Lottery ran its first limited-edition Millionaire Raffle, selling 300,000 tickets at €20 each. The draw, which featured two top prizes of €1 million, was held on 26 August 2008 to coincide with
3500-544: A way to raise public funding for projects, and this led to the popular belief that lotteries were a form of hidden tax. At the end of the Revolutionary War the various states had to resort to lotteries to raise funds for numerous public projects. The first big lottery on German soil was held in 1614 in Hamburg . In Austria the first lottery was drawn in 1751, during the reign of Empress Maria Theresia , and
3625-402: Is 18. Almost 40 percent of Irish adults play National Lottery games regularly, with 84 percent of sales transacted through a nationwide network of over 5,200 retailers and the remainder made online through the National Lottery website or mobile app. Almost 30 percent of sales go to fund designated good causes in the areas of sport and recreation, national culture, the arts, community health, and
3750-527: Is a Malaysian company, which operates in the gambling sector. Founded and incorporated by the Malaysian Government in 1969, it was focused on the commercialisation of 4-Digits –based games. On 1 August 1985, the government in a non- tender privatisation , sold the company to businessman Vincent Tan who merged it into his Berjaya Group . Today, Sports Toto is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berjaya Sports Toto Berhad ( MYX : 1562), which
3875-402: Is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers at random for a prize. Some governments outlaw lotteries, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of regulation of lottery by governments. The most common regulations are prohibition of sale to minors and licensing of ticket vendors. Although lotteries were common in
EuroMillions - Misplaced Pages Continue
4000-624: Is a national lottery. It is organized every year since 1812 by a branch of the Spanish Public Administration, now called Loterías y Apuestas del Estado. The name Sorteo de Navidad was used for the first time in 1892. The Spanish Christmas lottery is the second longest continuously running lottery in the world. This includes the years during the Spanish Civil War when the lottery draw was held in Valencia after
4125-476: Is available to contribute to the jackpot, for example, to boost the initial jackpot in a sequence of growing jackpots. The amount utilized each week is determined in advance by the participating lotteries. Effective 7 November 2009 new rules were put in place regarding rollovers: A new rule change of 12 January 2012 locked the Jackpot cap at €190,000,000 permanently and if the jackpot was not won after two draws,
4250-643: Is listed on the main market of Bursa Malaysia . It claims to be the largest operator in Malaysia of 4D-based games, with 680 sales outlets offering a total of 7 games. The Mexican Lotería Nacional dates back to the late 18th century. The goal of the Lotería is to create jobs and to "impulse the wealth redistribution process". The Lotería is also a member of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries. As measured by
4375-559: Is now €6. Based around the main Lotto draw, Lotto 5-4-3-2-1 was introduced in February 1997. It allows players to win prizes by correctly matching one, two, three, four, or five of the drawn numbers. The more numbers players try to match, the greater the prize. Players may base their choices either on a six-number game (excluding the bonus number) or on a seven-number game (including the bonus number). The prizes for each possible outcome are fixed and do not depend on sales. The odds of winning
4500-406: Is operated by Allwyn Entertainment Ltd, who took over from the original operator Camelot Group in 2024. 28% of National Lottery revenue, along with all unclaimed prizes, are distributed as grants to charitable causes. 12% of the revenue from the National Lottery is expected to go to the government, 5% goes to lottery retailers, 5% is retained by the operator for operating costs, and 50% remains for
4625-487: The Austrian , Belgian , Irish , Luxembourgish , Portuguese and Swiss lotteries joining for the 8 October 2004 draw. Draws are held every Tuesday and Friday night at approximately 21:05 CET in Paris . A standard EuroMillions ticket costs €2.50, £2.50 or CHF 3.50 per line played. The draw machines are manufactured by French manufacturer Ryo Catteau , with the main number machine using their Stresa model, whilst
4750-474: The EUR / GBP exchange rate and automatic entry into its Millionaire Raffle . On 24 September 2016, the cost per line increased from £2.00 to £2.50 in the UK. On the same day, in Ireland and Spain it rose to €2.50 per line. From 24 September 2016, the number of lucky stars changed from a pool of 11 to a pool of 12 numbers, decreasing the jackpot-winning odds from 1:117million to 1:140million. All prizes, including
4875-664: The Gambling Act 2005 , the maximum amount which can be won by a single ticket is £500,000, or 10% of the total draw proceeds. A minimum of 33% of the ticket price from players' subscriptions supports various trusts, which in turn fund local and international charities and community projects. Some £850 million have been donated. People's Postcode Lottery has a number of celebrity ambassadors, including David Attenborough , Judi Dench , Shobna Gulati , Tim Healy , Stephen Jardine , Ellen MacArthur , Aggie MacKenzie , Carey Mulligan , John Stapleton and Emma Thompson . The lottery
5000-634: The Irish Hospitals' Sweepstake , which had run since 1930, bid unsuccessfully in a public tender process for the licence to operate the lottery; they then placed the Irish Hospitals' Sweepstake into voluntary liquidation in March 1987 after deciding it could not compete with the National Lottery. The government awarded the National Lottery licence to An Post National Lottery Company ( Irish : Comhlacht Chrannchur Náisiúnta An Post ), which
5125-549: The United States and some other countries during the 19th century, by the beginning of the 20th century, most forms of gambling, including lotteries and sweepstakes , were illegal in the U.S. and most of Europe as well as many other countries. This remained so until well after World War II. In the 1960s, casinos and lotteries began to re-appear throughout the world as a means for governments to raise revenue without raising taxes. Lotteries come in many formats. For example,
EuroMillions - Misplaced Pages Continue
5250-516: The Virginia Company of London the right to raise money to help establish settlers in the first permanent English colony at Jamestown, Virginia . Lotteries in colonial America played a significant part in the financing of both private and public ventures. It has been recorded that more than 200 lotteries were sanctioned between 1744 and 1776, and played a major role in financing roads, libraries, churches, colleges, canals, bridges, etc. In
5375-736: The Western Canada Lottery Corporation (which serves Western and Northern Canada , excluding British Columbia ), and the British Columbia Lottery Corporation . The five regional lotteries are members of a consortium known as the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation , which administrates national games, including the flagship Lotto 6/49 and Lotto Max . The five lotteries offer draw games, scratch cards, and sports betting —the latter primarily under
5500-412: The euro currency on 1 January 2002, the cost of a line of Lotto became €0.95, and the starting jackpot became €1.269 million (the euro equivalent of £ 1 million). For draws beginning 1 September 2002, the price of Lotto was rounded to €1 per line, and the starting jackpot was raised slightly to €1.35 million. In November 2006, after several years of declining sales, the National Lottery changed Lotto to
5625-727: The natural environment to the list of good causes eligible to receive National Lottery funding. On 3 October 2013, the government announced the winning bid of €405 million from Premier Lotteries Ireland DAC (PLI), majority-owned by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (then-owner of the Camelot Group , which operated the UK National Lottery from 1994 to 2024), with a minority stake held by An Post and An Post Pension Funds. The Italian-owned GTECH and Australian gambling operator Tatts Group had also bid for
5750-721: The 1740s, the foundation of Princeton and Columbia Universities was financed by lotteries, as was the University of Pennsylvania by the Academy Lottery in 1755. During the French and Indian Wars , several colonies used lotteries to help finance fortifications and their local militia. In May 1758, the Province of Massachusetts Bay raised money with a lottery for the "Expedition against Canada". Benjamin Franklin organized
5875-791: The 2011 round 41. The main victory at that time was with 7 correct results and the smallest victory with three actual and one additional number, the number of which was reduced from three to two. The lottery return percentage is 41.1. Another lottery game played in Finland is Vikinglotto , which can be played in all Nordic countries as well as in Estonia , Latvia and Lithuania . In Vikinglotto, six actual numbers and two additional numbers out of 48 are drawn. There are five winning categories: 6 correct, 5 + extra number, 5 correct, 4 correct and 3 correct. In Finland, an average of six million euros in winnings go unredeemed each year. A national lottery
6000-404: The 5,200-member retail network and 16 percent were made online. National Lottery prizes are paid out as tax-free lump sums, with the top two EuroDreams prizes paid as tax-free annuities. All prizes in Lotto, EuroMillions, EuroDreams, and Daily Million games must be claimed within 90 days of the applicable drawing dates. The minimum age for playing all National Lottery games is 18, and winners have
6125-690: The Australian government started their own lottery, named the 'Golden Casket Art Union', with the intention of raising money for charities and projects. Its first draw is credited with raising funds for veterans of World War One. Lotteries in Canada are administered by five regional organizations; the Atlantic Lottery Corporation (which serves Atlantic Canada ), Loto-Québec , the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation ,
6250-552: The Calzabigi brothers (Giovanni and Ranieri). Casanova defended the project in a series of conversations with Madame de Pompadour , the French mathematician Jean d'Alembert , Joseph de Pâris Duverney, intendent of the École, and the French minister of foreign affair. Unlike modern lotteries where the state can never lose, in the French lottery the state could lose, but a wise choice of the payoff made losses so improbable as to ensure
6375-459: The English lotteries ran for over 250 years, until the government, under constant pressure from the opposition in Parliament, declared a final lottery in 1826. This lottery was held up to ridicule by contemporary commentators as "the last struggle of the speculators on public credulity for popularity to their last dying lottery". An English lottery, authorized by King James I in 1612, granted
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#17327655302206500-660: The EuroDreams top prize are 1 in 19,191,900. In September 2012, the National Lottery introduced Daily Million to replace both Monday Million (a former draw game with prizes up to €1 million, held once weekly on Monday nights) and All or Nothing (a former daily draw game with prizes up to €500,000). A 6/39 lottery drawing with a fixed, non-rolling jackpot of €1 million, Daily Million took place once each day until April 2016. From that point, two draws have been held each day. Daily Million costs €1 per line to play. For an extra €0.50 per line, players can also play Daily Million Plus for
6625-524: The EuroMillions and pledged to donate their prize money to good causes. However, cybercriminals started using their names in their email scams to fool the general public and ultimately cheat them of money. In June 2007, the Irish National Lottery introduced "Plus," an add-on to the main EuroMillions game available only to Irish players. For an extra €1 per line, players can enter their five main EuroMillions numbers in an additional draw for
6750-533: The Irish government sold the National Lottery licence for 20 years to a private operator, Premier Lotteries Ireland DAC (PLI), which was initially majority-owned by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan , with a minority stake held by An Post and An Post Pension Funds. PLI began operating the National Lottery in November 2014. The French lottery operator Française des Jeux (FDJ) acquired PLI in November 2023. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform appoints an independent regulator (currently Carol Boate) to oversee
6875-415: The Jackpot is set to a guaranteed amount – often €100,000,000. The difference is that a Super Draw jackpot will roll over to the next drawing if not won, but an Event Draw jackpot will be distributed among the winners in the next lower tier (i.e. match 5 + 1). Until now, jackpots in a Super Draw have rolled over to the next drawing if not won. The first Super Draw of 2011 took place on Tuesday 10 May to mark
7000-600: The Lucky Star Number machine uses their Pâquerette model. Ireland has an exclusive option called Plus , which adds €1.00 per line. As of February 2014, a non-optional addition called "My Million" in France adds €0.50 per line, while in Portugal it is called " M1lhão " and represents €0.30 of the whole €2.50 bet. The cost of playing in the UK increased from £1.50 to £2.00 per line on 7 November 2009, due to
7125-576: The National Lottery introduced an additional midweek Lotto draw, first held on Wednesday, 30 May 1990. Since then, Lotto draws have been held twice weekly on Wednesday and Saturdays. Ticket sales close at 7:45 p.m. on those days, and draws are held at 7:55 p.m. Lotto initially operated as a 6/36 lottery game, in which the odds of matching all six numbers and winning the jackpot are 1 in 1,947,792. At its initial cost of £ 0.50 per line, all possible combinations could be purchased for £ 973,896. Polish-Irish accountant Stefan Klincewicz had been part of
7250-495: The National Lottery licence in a €3 billion privatisation drive agreed under the country's Economic Adjustment Programme . In April 2012, the government announced that it would sell a 20-year licence to operate the National Lottery, while ensuring that around 30 percent of lottery sales would still go to designated good causes. The National Lottery Act 2013 provided for the sale of the licence, eliminated some restrictions on Internet gambling to encourage online sales, and added
7375-548: The National Lottery's operations. In its 1984 economic plan, Building on Reality 1985–1987, the coalition government of Fine Gael and the Labour Party proposed to raise funds for sports through creating a new National Lottery. It passed the National Lottery Act 1986 , which stipulated that its proceeds would fund sport and recreation, national culture, the arts, and community health. The operators of
7500-727: The Republicans were forced to relocate their capital from Madrid. After the overthrow of the Republican government the lottery continued uninterrupted under the Franco regime. Notable prizes on different continents are: (local currency) The first lottery in Australia took place in the 1880s in Sydney. It was a private sweepstakes that was quickly prohibited, despite being moved to other areas such as Queensland and Victoria. In 1916,
7625-451: The acquisition, the National Lottery announced plans to move its headquarters away from Dublin's Abbey Street , where it had been based since its inception. Algeo stepped down as CEO and board member of PLI at the end of June 2024. He was succeeded by Cian Murphy, formerly PLI's chief product and digital officer, who had previously held roles with The AA , Paddy Power, and McKinsey & Company . The National Lottery Act 2013 established
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#17327655302207750-620: The brand Sport Select . The largest single jackpot record in Canadian lottery history was a Lotto Max drawing on January 7, 2020, for a jackpot of $ 70 million. In Finland, Veikkaus began selling lottery tickets in December 1970, and the first draw was televised on January 3, 1971. The lottery turned 40 on January 3, 2011, and by then the lottery had been drawn 2,126 times. Since then, there has been one lottery draw every week. Lottery game time usually ends on Saturday at 9:45 p.m., and
7875-475: The draw is usually held on Saturday at 10:15 p.m. Large public holidays on Saturdays may postpone the draw to Sunday. The lottery has two official supervisors; from 3 January 1971 to 29 September 2013, the lottery was televised on Yle TV1 , and in October 2013, the lottery draws were postponed on MTV3 after ten evening news, because according to FICORA , the sponsorship cooperation between Veikkaus and Yle
8000-569: The drawing of lots. The first known European lotteries were held during the Roman Empire , mainly as an amusement at dinner parties. Each guest would receive a ticket, and prizes would often consist of fancy items such as dinnerware. Every ticket holder would be assured of winning something. This type of lottery, however, was no more than the distribution of gifts by wealthy noblemen during the Saturnalian revelries. The earliest records of
8125-580: The final evening of the Rose of Tralee festival. Millionaire Raffles took place occasionally at Easter, in the summer, and at Christmas until 2014. Since then, the Millionaire Raffle has taken place only at Christmas, with ticket sales opening on 1 November and the draw held on New Year's Eve. For the Christmas 2023 Millionaire Raffle, 600,000 tickets were sold at a cost of €25 each. The top prize
8250-506: The first time a Lotto draw had been postponed. In 2020, following an investigation, the National Lottery regulator found that PLI had breached three provisions of the National Lottery Act 2013, as well as its licence with the Irish state, by omitting top prizes totaling €180,000 from three scratchcard games, one held in 2015 and two held in 2019. The investigation found that the omissions were due to human error. PLI returned
8375-481: The first time on 17 November 2006, after over €183 million had accumulated in the jackpot. The sum was shared between the winners of the second rank (there were 20 winners of €9.6 million each). The first highest jackpot with €190 million was won by the Bayford couple from England on 10 August 2012, and they received "only" £148.6 million because of the strength of the pound. The €185 million (£161.6 million) jackpot that
8500-540: The game is also available to players in Andorra , Liechtenstein , and Monaco , as well as the Isle of Man and French overseas regions and collectivities . Entrants must be at least 18 years old. There is no restriction on the nationality of buyers; non-residents are eligible to participate as long as they meet the age requirement. The prize structure as of Tuesday, 4 February 2020 is as follows: The Prize Guarantee Fund
8625-464: The government's Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform on 14 December 2021. Boate stated that no irregularities had been observed in Lotto draws, noting that other countries' lotteries had experienced similar extended sequences of rollovers. PLI chief executive Andrew Algeo stated that the operator was seeking regulatory approval for a "must-win" draw if a capped jackpot had not been won for an extended period of time. In January 2022,
8750-448: The introduction of the second weekly Euromillions draw and changes to the game format (11 lucky stars instead of 9 and a new "match 2 main numbers and no lucky stars" prize tier). The first Super Draw of 2016 took place on Friday 30 September to introduce the change to the game format (12 lucky stars instead of 11 and increased price). Event Draws have been held to date on Super Draws have been held to date on A €100,000,000 Super draw
8875-412: The jackpot odds 1 in 5,245,786. At the same time, it introduced computer-generated "quick picks" as an alternative to marking numbers on paper play slips. Beginning on 26 September 1998, the National Lottery increased the cost of a line of Lotto from £ 0.50 to £ 0.75, doubled the game's starting jackpot to £ 1 million, and increased most of the game's smaller prizes by 50 percent. After Ireland adopted
9000-411: The jackpot reaches a new all-time high, it is capped at that level. Once a jackpot is capped, funds that otherwise would have gone toward increasing the jackpot are divided in each draw among ticketholders in the next-highest prize tier that has at least one winner. For a record 63 consecutive Lotto draws from 9 June 2021 to 12 January 2022, no ticket matched all six numbers to win the jackpot, breaking
9125-625: The jackpot, are tax-free (except in Switzerland , Spain and Portugal , since 2013) and are paid as a lump sum . Draws take place at approximately 21:05 CET every Tuesday and Friday in Paris . The results are published shortly after the draw on associated and independent websites around 21:50 CET. To participate in the EuroMillions Lotto, tickets can be purchased from many outlets, namely at licensed stores and online websites. The gameplay changed on Tuesday, 10 May 2011 with
9250-415: The licence in 2001 as the only bidder in the public tender process, after two other applications were withdrawn. Ray Bates served as director of An Post National Lottery Company from its inception until he stood down in 2006; he was replaced as director by the company's former chief operating officer, Dermot Griffin. In 2011, during the country's post-2008 economic downturn , the Irish government included
9375-425: The licence. The government stated that half the proceeds from the sale would go towards construction of a new children's hospital while the other half would be used to pay down state debt and fund jobs programmes. The staff of An Post National Lottery Company were transferred to PLI, which began operating the National Lottery in November 2014. Griffin became CEO of PLI and continued in that role until 2019, when he
9500-412: The longer odds, the National Lottery doubled the starting jackpot, added a bonus number to the drawings, and awarded new prizes for Match-5+bonus, Match-4+bonus, and Match-3+bonus. Anticipating competition in border counties from the 6/49 game launched by the UK National Lottery , which began operations on 14 November 1994, the National Lottery changed Lotto to a 6/42 game on 24 September 1994, which made
9625-665: The lottery's structure was designed to contravene British law regarding lotteries. In the UK, winning the lottery is correlated to expressing more preference for the Conservative Party . Winning larger prizes results in a larger shift in favor of the Conservative Party. People's Postcode Lottery is a subscription lottery in the UK. The format was introduced by Dutch company Novamedia BV : players pay at minimum £10 monthly to play, and winning postcodes are announced daily. In accordance with restrictions under
9750-401: The marketing expenditure as necessary promotion for the lottery and stated that PLI had remained compliant with the licence terms. The committee also questioned lottery regulator Carol Boate over PLI's use of unclaimed winnings. Some members called Boate a "bystander" on the issue while Fine Gael TD Jennifer Carroll MacNeill criticised her for not seeking external legal advice. Also in 2022,
9875-525: The modern-day stockbrokers for various commercial ventures. Most people could not afford the entire cost of a lottery ticket, so the brokers would sell shares in a ticket; this resulted in tickets being issued with a notation such as "Sixteenth" or "Third Class". Many private lotteries were held, including raising money for the Virginia Company of London to support its settlement in America at Jamestown. The English State Lottery ran from 1694 until 1826. Thus,
10000-429: The natural environment. The National Lottery has raised over €6 billion for good causes since its inception. In 2022, total National Lottery sales were €884 million, with almost €485 million returned in prizes and almost €260 million distributed to good causes. From 1986 to 2014, the state-owned An Post National Lottery Company operated the National Lottery. To raise funds during Ireland's post-2008 economic downturn ,
10125-462: The number of €20 tickets available was reduced from 180 million to 160 million, reducing the potential maximum prize pool to €2.24 billion (70% of ticket sales), with a maximum potential El Gordo of €720 million. A lottery was first held in Thailand (then known as Siam ) in 1874 during the reign of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V), as part of an international fair organised for his birthday. A lottery
10250-615: The office of the Regulator of the National Lottery, appointed by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. The regulator may serve a term not exceeding seven years and may be reappointed for one additional term. The first regulator appointed to the office was Liam Sloyan, a former chief executive of the Health Insurance Authority , who took up the position on 17 November 2014. He was succeeded by Carol Boate,
10375-621: The outset of the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress used lotteries to raise money to support the Colonial Army. Alexander Hamilton wrote that lotteries should be kept simple, and that "Everybody ... will be willing to hazard a trifling sum for the chance of considerable gain ... and would prefer a small chance of winning a great deal to a great chance of winning little". Taxes had never been accepted as
10500-503: The platform. It was the first time PLI had been financially penalised due to problems identified by the regulator. The National Lottery began gaming operations on 23 March 1987 when it launched its first scratchcards , selling an estimated 1 million on the first day of trading. It now offers EuroDreams draws on Mondays and Thursdays, Lotto and Lotto Plus draws on Wednesdays and Saturdays, EuroMillions and Plus draws on Tuesdays and Fridays, and two Daily Million draws each day. It also runs
10625-620: The poor or in order to raise funds for a wide range of public usages. The lotteries proved very popular and were hailed as a painless form of taxation . The Dutch state-owned Staatsloterij is the oldest running lottery (1726). The English word lottery is derived from the Dutch noun "lot" meaning "fate". The first recorded Italian lottery was held on 9 January 1449 in Milan organized by the Golden Ambrosian Republic to finance
10750-477: The poor. The town records of Ghent , Utrecht , and Bruges indicate that lotteries may be even older. A record dated 9 May 1445 at L'Ecluse refers to raising funds to build walls and town fortifications, with a lottery of 4,304 tickets and total prize money of 1737 florins (worth about US$ 170,000 in 2014). In the 17th century it was quite usual in the Netherlands to organize lotteries to collect money for
10875-598: The possibility of multiple winners. The first recorded signs of a lottery are keno slips from the Chinese Han dynasty between 205 and 187 BC. These lotteries are believed to have helped to finance major government projects like the Great Wall of China . From the Chinese Book of Songs (2nd millennium BC.) comes a reference to a game of chance as "the drawing of wood", which in context appears to describe
11000-493: The previous record of 22 consecutive rollovers. The jackpot reached a new all-time high of €19,060,800 on 29 September 2021, surpassing the previous record jackpot of €18,963,441 that had been won on 28 June 2008 by a syndicate in Bennekerry, Carlow . The jackpot was capped at this amount for subsequent draws. In November 2021, after the jackpot had rolled over 46 consecutive times, Fine Gael TD Bernard Durkan demanded
11125-418: The prize can be a fixed amount of cash or goods. In this format, there is risk to the organizer if insufficient tickets are sold. More commonly, the prize fund will be a fixed percentage of the receipts. A popular form of this is the "50–50" draw, where the organizers promise that the prize will be 50% of the revenue. Many recent lotteries allow purchasers to select the numbers on the lottery ticket, resulting in
11250-494: The prize money for televised game shows . Players who got three "lucky stars" on associated scratchcards could submit them for televised drawings, with the winners appearing as contestants on the game show. The National Lottery's flagship game show Winning Streak featured on RTÉ One on Saturday nights between 1990 and 2020, but production was suspended in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic , and no date has been given for
11375-422: The prize money would be distributed among the winners at the next level. A new rule change of 24 September 2016 stated that if the jackpot is not won five draws after it reaches €190,000,000, the prize money will be distributed among the winners at the next level. The minimum jackpot prize increased from 15m euros to 17m euros. In February 2020, the rules regarding the EuroMillions jackpot changed again. The new cap
11500-540: The prizes to consumers through a New Year's Special Draw and also made a €50,000 donation to a mental health charity. In 2022, the Public Accounts Committee questioned PLI CEO Andrew Algeo regarding the company's use of unclaimed winnings between 2015 and 2021, an amount totaling over €124 million. PLI was criticized for allocating €120 million of this sum to marketing expenses while allocating less than €2 million towards top-up prizes. Algeo defended
11625-537: The programme's resumption. Other televised game shows associated with the National Lottery have included Fame & Fortune , The Trump Card , The Big Money Game , and The Million Euro Challenge . In the 1990s, RTÉ produced a sitcom called Upwardly Mobile about a working-class family who won the Lotto and moved to an upper-middle-class area. It ran for three seasons between 1995 and 1997. Waking Ned (known as Waking Ned Devine in North America)
11750-425: The record jackpot of €183 million after the first rank was eleven draws vacant. Two French people and one Portuguese received €61,191,026 each. In order to limit the jackpot from growing higher, the rules of the game in the period from 2006 to 2009 stipulated that after the twelfth draw without a winner before the jackpot amount would be rolled down and shared between the winners in the next prize tier. This happened for
11875-474: The regulator fined PLI €150,000 for breach of licence after it failed to bar some problem gamblers from online platforms, even though those users had elected to avail of a permanent self-exclusion option introduced in 2019. An investigation by the regulator identified 126 self-excluded users whose accounts had been deleted in error in October 2021, rather than permanently closed. Of these, 16 had subsequently opened new online accounts and 10 had resumed gambling on
12000-504: The regulator gave approval for a Will-Be-Won draw, under which, if no ticket matched all six winning numbers, the outstanding jackpot would flow down to the winner(s) of the next prize tier. A Will-Be-Won draw was held on Saturday, 15 January 2022. Retail outlets were described as "manic" ahead of the draw, due to high demand for tickets, and the National Lottery's website and mobile app experienced outages due to heavy usage. A family syndicate from County Mayo matched all six numbers to win
12125-440: The right to remain anonymous. All unclaimed prizes are retained by the National Lottery and are mostly used for marketing expenses. Lotto, a six-number lottery game , is the National Lottery's longest-running draw game. The inaugural Lotto draw was held on Saturday, 16 April 1988, for a jackpot of £ 147,059, which was won by Brigid McGrath from Letterkenny , County Donegal . Lotto draws continued weekly on Saturday nights until
12250-406: The six-number game's top prize of €125,000 are 1 in 255,657. The odds of winning the seven-number game's top prize of €40,000 are 1 in 73,045. The National Lottery joined the transnational EuroMillions lottery on 8 October 2004. Since then, several significant EuroMillions jackpots have been won or shared in Ireland. On 31 July 2005, Dolores McNamara, a part-time cleaning lady from Limerick , won
12375-430: The syndicate could claim only one-third of the jackpot, or £ 568,682. Match-5 and Match-4 prizes brought its total winnings to approximately £ 1,166,000, representing a profit of around £ 310,000 before expenses. To prevent such a brute force attack from recurring, the National Lottery changed Lotto to a 6/39 game for drawings beginning on 22 August 1992, raising the jackpot odds to 1 in 3,262,623. To compensate for
12500-673: The top price now up to 32 million baht . Shrines of local folklore and popular religion , such as Nang Ta-Khian , are often propitiated in order to be lucky in the Thai lottery draw. The principal lottery in the United Kingdom is the National Lottery , a state-franchised lottery sanctioned by the Gambling Commission (formerly the National Lottery Commission ), and established in 1994. It
12625-492: The total prize fund of which 5% is diverted to a Super Draw fund, leaving 45% for normal prizes. Northern & Shell also operates a commercial lottery known as The Health Lottery , which distributes its revenue to support health-related charities and causes. To comply with the Gambling Act, which forbids other parties from operating a national lottery, The Health Lottery operates as an umbrella corporation representing
12750-539: The total prize payout, the Spanish Christmas Lottery is considered the biggest lottery worldwide. In 2012, if all of the tickets had been sold, the total amount payout of prizes would have been worth €2.52 billion (70% of ticket sales). The total amount of all prizes of the first category called El Gordo ("the fat one") was €720 million which was distributed among 180 winning tickets (billetes) that win €4 million each. For 2013, due to falling demand,
12875-482: The two draws. According to the Euromillions website, the chances of winning the UK Millionaire Maker game on a Tuesday can be estimated as 1 in 3,570,000 with a standard £14m jackpot. On a Friday, it can be calculated as approximately 1 in 5,080,000 - again with a baseline £14m jackpot. Winning in this game depends entirely on the number of the payslips sold so the odds fluctuate. The odds may also fluctuate during
13000-537: The war against the Republic of Venice . However, it was in Genoa that Lotto became very popular. People used to bet on the name of Great Council members, who were drawn by chance , five out of ninety candidates every six months. This kind of gambling was called Lotto or Semenaiu . When people wanted to bet more frequently than twice a year, they began to substitute the candidates names with numbers and modern lotto
13125-448: The weekly drawing game Lotto the following year, holding the first draw on 16 April 1988. It now offers EuroDreams draws on Mondays and Thursdays, EuroMillions and Plus draws on Tuesdays and Fridays, Lotto and Lotto Plus draws on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and two Daily Million draws each day. Its other games include televised bingo, an annual Millionaire Raffle, and online instant-win games. The minimum age to play all National Lottery games
13250-477: The winners receiving €5,000 each. In August 2021, the National Lottery awarded five IOR codes an extra €1 million each over the course of two weeks. In June 2007, the National Lottery introduced "Plus," an add-on to the main EuroMillions game available only to Irish players. For an extra €1 per line, players can enter their five main EuroMillions numbers in an additional draw for a fixed, non-rolling jackpot of €500,000. Players can also win fixed prizes of €2,000 for
13375-645: The world thanks to online lottery agents and bookkeepers. Some states have tried to combat this with different measures. The state government of Tamil Nadu decided to ban GooglePay since it allows payments to online lotteries and awards its users in India with Scratchcards . Indian lotteries provide a substantial economic boost for the states that provide them. In the fiscal year 2017–2018 Kerala collected GST worth Rs 908 crore and state revenue of Rs 1,691 crore. Lottery industry start operated in Malaysia on early 1969 by Berjaya Group . Sports Toto Malaysia Sdn Bhd
13500-554: The €19,060,800 jackpot outright, after buying the winning quick-pick ticket at Laura's XL store in Castlebar . To prevent future capped jackpots from rolling over indefinitely, Lotto game rules were changed to require a Will-Be-Won draw no more than five draws after a jackpot cap has been reached. In 2000, the National Lottery introduced Lotto Plus as an add-on to the main Lotto game. For an extra £ 0.25 per line, players could enter their Lotto numbers in an additional 6/42 drawing for
13625-441: Was 80 percent owned by Ireland's state-owned postal services provider An Post and 20 percent owned by the Minister for Finance (later the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform ). The National Lottery licence was initially issued for a ten-year period, but in 1992 the licence term was extended to 31 March 2000. The licence was subsequently extended for an additional year. An Post National Lottery Company successfully retained
13750-546: Was a fiasco, since the tickets were very costly and the social classes which could afford them opposed the project. Between 1757 and 1836, for a period of about 80 years with some interruption during the French Revolution , the French state ran a profitable Loterie . The project was born out a series of initiatives to fund the École militaire . Instrumental to the birth of the Loterie were Giacomo Casanova and
13875-518: Was born, to which both modern legal lotteries and the illegal numbers game can trace their ancestry. King Francis I of France discovered the lotteries during his campaigns in Italy and decided to organize such a lottery in his kingdom to help the state finances. The first French lottery, the Loterie Royale , was held in 1539 and was authorized with the edict of Châteaurenard . This attempt
14000-509: Was designed to raise money for the "reparation of the havens and strength of the Realme, and towardes such other publique good workes", including the rebuilding of ports and new ships for the royal fleet. Each ticket holder won a prize, and the total value of the prizes equalled the money raised. Prizes were in the form of both "ready money" and valuable commodities such as silver plate, tapestries, and fine linen cloth. Additionally, each participant
14125-515: Was granted immunity from one arrest, "so long as the crime wasn't piracy, murder, felonies, or treason." The lottery was promoted by scrolls posted throughout the country showing sketches of the prizes. Thus, the lottery money received was an interest-free loan to the government during the three years that the tickets ('without any Blankes') were sold. In later years, the government sold the lottery ticket rights to brokers, who in turn hired agents and runners to sell them. These brokers eventually became
14250-458: Was illegal. In the current lottery played in Finland, the player chooses seven numbers between 1 and 40 (initially, until the autumn of 1980, six numbers between 1 and 40 were chosen, then for a few years seven numbers between 1 and 37 and then seven numbers between 1 and 39). In the draw, seven numbers and one (previously three and then two) additional numbers are drawn; the line price is 1 euro. The profit categories were changed, for example, from
14375-729: Was named Lotto di Genova since it was based on 90 numbers. Spain offers a wealth of lottery games, the majority of which are operated by Loterías y Apuestas del Estado with the remaining lotteries operated by the ONCE and the Catalan government. The first Spanish lottery game was played back in 1763 and, over the last two centuries, playing the lottery in Spain has developed into a tradition. The Spanish Christmas Lottery (officially Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad [soɾˈteo ekstɾaorðiˈnaɾjo ðe naβiˈðað] or simply Lotería de Navidad [loteˈɾia ðe naβiˈðað])
14500-515: Was organised in 1917 by the British government with Thai consent to help finance Britain's war effort. Lotteries were held intermittently until 1933, when they became regularised under the finance department. The present Thai lottery is managed by The Government Lottery Office, a state enterprise managed by the Ministry of Finance . The drawings take place on the 1st and 16th of each month, with
14625-463: Was planned for 6 June 2014 but was cancelled when the jackpot rolled over to €105,000,000. This also happened for the superdraw that was planned for Friday 29 April 2022. This is a change to the game rules as of 4 April 2011 when the Event Draw was added. The first huge jackpot of over €115.4 million was won by Irish woman Dolores McNamara on 29 July 2005. On 3 February 2006, three winners shared
14750-471: Was reached on 8 December 2023. The participating national lotteries in the EuroMillions game have each established a EuroMillions Trust account. This is used for the settlement of all amounts due, and for holding amounts in respect of future prizes. This trust arrangement protects the participating lotteries between them from a default from one of the national companies, and ultimately the players' interests. Super Draws and Event Draws are special drawings when
14875-1004: Was reintroduced in 1933. There are many lotteries in India. All lotteries are run by state governments but only 13 of the 28 Indian states allow them. The leader within Indian lotteries is the Kerala State Government that started their lottery department in 1967 following the country wide ban on private lotteries. The Kerala State Lotteries became an inspiration for other Indian states that started their own lotteries. As of right now lotteries are available in Kerala , Goa , Maharashtra , Madhya Pradesh , Punjab , West Bengal , Assam , Arunachal Pradesh , Meghalaya , Manipur , Sikkim , Nagaland and Mizoram . The public ban on lotteries in other states has not been very effective since several lottery providers allow Indians to play online. Indian players can play lotteries from all over
15000-478: Was set at €200,000,000, but that would no longer be fixed. If the jackpot gets to this amount, the cycle can last for five draws. If there are no winners in the fifth draw, the jackpot is paid out to the lower tier. For the next cycle, the maximum jackpot is set to €210,000,000, and is again paid out to the lower tier if there is no winner. In subsequent cycles, the maximum jackpot is raised to 220, 230, 240 and finally 250 million euros. The latest maximum jackpot, €240m,
15125-521: Was succeeded by former Paddy Power executive Andrew Algeo. In March 2023, The Sunday Times reported that the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan was planning to sell its 78.6 percent stake in PLI. In July 2023, it was announced that the French lottery operator Française des Jeux (FDJ), in its first lottery venture outside France, had agreed to acquire PLI in full for €350 million. Due to
15250-482: Was the subject of a Channel 4 documentary, The Welsh Valley That Won the Lottery , about the residents of Rhymney who won in May 2022. Lotteries are operated at the state level in the U.S.; 45 states and 3 territories operate state lotteries, and nearly all of them are members of consortiums that operate regional games, and the two near-national games Mega Millions and Powerball . In November 2022, Powerball set
15375-461: Was won by a single ticket holder in the UK bearing the winning numbers - 7,10,15,44,49 and the lucky numbers 3,12. The highest jackpot ever won in the UK, and second highest jackpot to date, was £195,707,000 (€230,300,000), on 19 July 2022. The winning numbers were 6,23,27,40,21 and the lucky numbers - 2,12. In the UK, the total EuroMillions revenue is broken down as follows: Chris and Colin Weir won
15500-432: Was won by the Weir couple from Scotland on 12 July 2011 was considered to be the highest jackpot in the UK until Peter Wilson's win on the 8 October 2019. A jackpot of nearly €175.5 million was won by a family syndicate of 8 siblings (7 alive and one who had passed away but whose family were still included in the winnings) who were from County Dublin in Ireland on 19 February 2019. A jackpot of €190 million (£170.2 million)
15625-475: Was €1 million, with an additional 6 prizes of €100,000, 15 prizes of €10,000, 45 prizes of €5,000, 302 prizes of €1,000, and 8,131 prizes of €500. The National Lottery introduced Telly Bingo in September 1999. Players buy tickets with 24 randomly generated numbers, and can win prizes by matching the numbers drawn on a lunchtime TV show in a variety of patterns, with a prize of €10,000 for a full house. An additional €10,000 Snowball prize goes to someone who achieves
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